Points from the article:

-The vans are being made here. There are no imports or domestics anymore, either.

-The overall plan is to lease these back to "upstart" delivery companies. Sounds basically like a way to put the current Amazon delivery on steroids.

-The driving force here is to reduce dependence on the big shipping companies.

quote:

Originally posted by DaBigBR:
Points from the article:

-The vans are being made here. There are no imports or domestics anymore, either.

-The overall plan is to lease these back to "upstart" delivery companies. Sounds basically like a way to put the current Amazon delivery on steroids.

-The driving force here is to reduce dependence on the big shipping companies.

I believe the vans are manufactured in Germany and disassembled when shipped to South Carolina where they are assembled. This is a process to avoid the “Chicken Tax”.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
...or like the cattle baron in Westerns, who owns the entire town.

Amazontown

You get yer goods and sundries from the Amazon General Store. Buy yer lumber from Amazon Lumber.

Hell, we even got an Amazon whore house.

Starbucks?

"The chicken tax, imposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson after France and West Germany put a tariff on American-imported chicken, hampers automakers that build trucks overseas for the U.S. market. To avoid the double-digit tax, they dissemble the trucks before shipping them overseas and put them back together at an assembly plant in the U.S." Forbes article about Mercedes Sprinter

Despite what this article says, I doubt they disassemble already assembled vans, ship the parts here, and reassemble them rather than just shipping the parts here and assembling them into a van here.

Here's what Ford does with the Transit manufactured in Spain:

"Brand-new Ford Transit Connect vans, made in Spain, are dropped off at U.S. ports several times a month. First, they pass through customs — and then workers hired by the automaker start to rip the vehicles apart. The rear seats are plucked out. The seat belts in back go, too. Sometimes, the rear side windows are covered with painted plates. Any holes left in the floor are patched over."

"By removing the rear seats and converting passenger vans into cargo vans immediately after they officially enter the country, Ford has avoided an estimated $250 million in U.S. tariffs over the years." Washington Post article about Ford Transit

The company I work for has a location in the Boston area and at least two years ago had customers that were buying 10-20 Sprinter vans to deliver for Amazon. Amazon is really doing it all, Amazontown is coming!!

quote:

Originally posted by midwest guy:
I believe the vans are manufactured in Germany and disassembled when shipped to South Carolina where they are assembled. This is a process to avoid the “Chicken Tax”.

New factory that opened last month in the Carolinas will now build these (2019 model year onwards).

Depending on where you live, you can apply to start your own business as an Amazon Delivery Service Partner, with a fleet of 20-40 vans, and you lease or buy the vans from them.



https://logistics.amazon.com/